Ruby of the Sea
by Computermouse
Summary: Nicole has the best sister, but doesn't know where she came from. She doesn't need to know...right? And what about her stories? Are they true? (Better sumarie inside)
1. Default Chapter

Summary: Nicole thought that all there was to know about her sister, Ruby, was that she was her sister. She was wrong. There is much more to this girl than meets the eye. Ruby has her own agenda. Who is this Ruby who leaves her home at hours unheard of, tells stories that the adults do not approve of, has an odd fixation with the ocean, and can laugh directly into a storm with no fear in her heart? Who is she and where did she come from? She doesn't belong, and that's all anyone knows. And what about her stories? Who is the Girl?  
  
Disclaimer: Any original characters are mine. Any that belong to POTC are POTC's. K? This disclaimer goes for all of the chapters. I won't be repeating it. (But I will add a small disclaimer if I add more songs or poems) I made up the lullaby for Nicole, but the 'Yo-ho-yo-ho' song is most obviously POTC.  
  
~ Ruby Of the Sea ~  
  
Chapter 1  
  
A Past Unknown  
  
Nicole had the best sister. All of the children agreed. Her sister was adopted, but that wasn't what made her the best. It wasn't that she was as slender as a cat and just as agile. Nor was it that half of the lads in the city were in love with her, though it certainly did help. It wasn't that she was so pretty, that she could get away with anything that she pleased and never got caught, that she could sail better than the sailors at the port, or that she could swim as well as any fish. It was the stories that she told. They enchanted Nicole's friends, and made the adult women whisper if the happened to hear. She told of adventure and romance. Of stormy seas, and dangerous fogs. Of mystic winds that would blow you to islands that were inhabited by magical creatures, and of sprites that could make you fall in love with the next person you saw. Such topics were strictly taboo in that port, and that made the tales only more appealing to the privileged few that would bear witness to them.  
Nicole's sister's name was Ruby. At least, that's what she told everyone. Nicole's parents had named Ruby, Mary after they had adopted her. "After dear auntie." They would tell her. Ruby would smile and nod like a perfect angel, but as soon as they had turned their backs, she would sneak off to go swim in the harbor.  
No one knew Ruby's real age, not even the girl herself, but the parson gave her the birth date of the twenty-first of August, and had decided that she be declared eighteen.  
"Two more years, and you should be married." Mrs. Louis, her adoptive mother, would tell her. Ruby would always be silent during these times, but when Mrs. Louis had gone away, Ruby would always tell Nicole that the only man that she would ever marry would have to be a rascal, a merman, or a pirate. Everyone would laugh when she said that she would marry a pirate, but Ruby would just smile.  
  
Ruby would always tuck Nicole in, then sit at the foot of the bed and say the Lord's Prayer with her sister, and then the plea would start.  
"Tell me a story." It was Nicole's constant request at bed time.  
"Another one?" Ruby would always ask, as though surprised that her sister would always want one, "Aren't you too old for a story?"  
"Oh, no!" Nicole would reply, always eager for a fresh tale.  
"Alright," Ruby would reply, "but just one."  
Then Ruby would begin to tell the most wonderful stories. They were about pirates, usually. And almost always, about a Pirate named Jack Sparrow who sailed on a ship called The Black Pearl.  
"Captain Jack Sparrow!" Nicole would remind her sister when ever Ruby forgot, though it wasn't often.  
"Ai!" Ruby would reply, "And had anyone forgotten to call him so in his presence, he would take his sword and slice you to ribbons."  
Nicole breathed in, delicious tingles running up and down her back, chilling her and making her squeal.  
To be invited to the Louis household to stay over for the day was the ultimate dream of any girl, of age, or young.  
  
After the story, every now and again, Ruby would sing: "Now, dream of treasures gold, and of caverns deep. Close your weary eyes and go down to sleep. For Ruby-maid's going down to she sea, and your mother and father, they shouldn't see me."  
"Why do you call Mother and Father 'your' as though they weren't your own?" Nicole would ask when ever Ruby sang her song.  
"The ocean fair is my mother, dear. And the sun so bright, my pappy. The steamy mix of gold and blue, are the only things that make my heart happy." Ruby would reply as she would take off her dress and put on ragged pantaloons, a torn shirt, and leather boots.  
Nicole would always try to stay awake long enough to see Ruby slide out her window, but always fell asleep before Ruby had managed to finish unlacing her hated corset.  
By morning, Ruby would be in her room, asleep, and the only evidence that she had even left would be the open window of Nicole's bedroom.  
  
As Ruby, in her more comfortable clothes, walked down the darkened streets towards the harbor she would always feel the need to sing. She almost always did.  
"Yo, ho, yo ho! A pirate's life for me! We pillage and plunder, we bribe for the loot, drink up me hearties, yo ho! We pillage and ravage and don't give a hoot, drink up me hearties, yo ho!"  
Ruby had been seen before, and even fired at by drunken old governors who had come to hate and fear pirates. She even had a bullet hole in her left thigh to prove it.  
She was going down to the beach on a mission all of her own. She had never told anyone why she went, no one except Nicole even knew that she left, and Nicole looked up to her too much to question her.  
Ruby closed her eyes and remembered the story she had told Nicole that very evening. Ruby knew the way by heart, so she did not fear getting lost.  
  
*~*_*~*_*~*  
  
A girl stood at a port. She had cut her hair short in a boy's style, and had nothing more than one bag in her hand, and the clothes on her back. Her parents had just died, leaving her an only child and an orphan. It didn't matter. She'd always had a fierce streak of independence, and she had left just as soon as she had seen her parents dead. Before her meddling family had come and tried to put her in an orphanage. The girl doubted that the orphanage would take her anyway, because she was a least sixteen, 'But better safe than sorry.' The girl murmured as she looked about for a boat to stow away on.  
She wasn't sure which one to board, when she saw a huge ship pull up. She knew its name without having to see it, or ask anyone. It was the Amabilidad, the Spanish trade ship that was said to have raced the Black Pearl and won. The girl shook her head. No, never: the Black Pearl was definitely faster than this old wreck could ever hope to be, but it was still fast...and the captain was said to be a gentle old man. 'All the better if I'm caught' She thought. For a moment she walked about the harbor as though waiting to board a ship, but she eventually returned to the Amabilidad.  
"Might as well." She said as she threw her only bag into a barrel that was soon to be put onboard.  
Quickly, so as for no one to see her, she jumped into the barrel too. In five minutes she felt the barrel being moved. First it was knocked onto its side. She had expected them to do that, so she had previously taken a cloth from her bag, and wound it loosely around her head so that it wouldn't hit the side too hard.  
Next came the rolling. She hated this part. She went round, and around, and around, and around, and around until she was not sure if they had stopped or not because she was so dizzy. Finally, after a century it seemed, the rolling really did stop. The girl relaxed, hoping that it really was over now. It turned to be a mistake. When she relaxed, the cloth fell down, and she was too sick to pick it up. The barrel then was set upright. The girl did not expect this, and her head banged against the barrel. And forever after, she had a soft place on her scull just behind her ear, and it would hurt dreadfully if anything touched it.  
  
*~*_*~*_*~*  
  
Ruby walked to the beach. She took off her boots, and waded into the water up to her hips. Then she stood still.  
The moon was shining on the water, and making it look like silver silk...he had told her once that her hair felt like silk...but that was a long time ago, and he was probably dead anyway.  
Ruby took comfort in the serenity of the silver light. Not much mattered while she was out...only that she see It again...maybe some day she would...maybe not...  
She lost track of time and of space, as she indulged in the luxury of the ocean. It filled her flesh, it ran in her blood, it was the tears that she shed, the ocean was the essence of Ruby's being.  
  
Ruby heard a cock crow, shattering the silence. She jumped when she heard it, but quickly glided back to the shore.  
Ruby headed back to her home, running down the cobble road barefoot, her boots slung over her shoulder and her dark hair flying.  
Ruby stepped on something sharp. She winced as she felt the sole of her foot become sticky, and the ground where her foot stepped became dark with blood.  
"If I'm late..." Ruby muttered, but left her sentence unfinished as she ignored the sharp pains in her right foot every time she stepped down, and continued.  
--------------------------------------------- ** I've written more than just one chapter, but am only going to post after I get five reviews. In the next chapter I will be answering them. So please, R&R!^_^ ** 


	2. Chapter 2A history hidden

(Don't worry, every chapter won't be titled by paraphrasing the last, or sound like a 'Filmore' title)  
  
~ Ruby Of the Sea ~  
  
Chapter 2  
  
A History Hidden  
  
Ruby had managed to get home, and in bed before the maid had entered with her breakfast, but not long enough to get out of her outfit.  
She had slung her boots under the four-poster bed, and jumped under the quilts, drawing them up to her chin so that no one could see her apparel.  
"G'day m'lady." The maid greeted her.  
"'Morning Hilda." Ruby replied.  
"'Ere's your breakfast. 'Urry and eat up. Tha Mister 'UN Missus 'ar go'n 'oo a fancy gather'n, and 'ey want you 'un lil Nicole to join 'em."  
Ruby groaned. That meant that she would have to wear her corset all day.  
"I'll be 'ack in 'ive minutes 'oo ready 'oo. 'Oo'll be wear'n 'dat maroon 'un dat da Missus 'ot you last 'ear."  
Ruby nodded as Hilda left the room, then she jumped up and quickly got out of the clothes she had been wearing, and changed into the bed- clothes that she should have been wearing. Ruby scarfed down the food that had been set for her, then dove back under the quilts to get two or three minutes sleep before Hilda came back in to change her.  
  
Three hours later found Ruby, Nicole, and Mr., and Mrs. Louis sitting in the carriage, and watching in pull up to a large house.  
"Now, Mary, I would appreciate it if this time you would stay in the drawing room for more than thirty minutes." Mrs. Louis chided, "How do you ever expect to find a husband if you're never in the same room with a boy your age for more than five minutes."  
Ruby smiled and nodded. She'd stay in the room for thirty-one minutes, then find a solitary place.  
"You look so pretty in that dress," Mr. Louis teased, "that if I were your age and not married, I'd be your lover!"  
Ruby smiled and nodded again. It was terribly difficult to breathe in the corset when she was sitting.  
When the carriage finally arrived at the door of the mansion, Ruby was the first to jump out.  
A small girl that had been waiting near by next to some trees, jumped up and ran towards the Louises when she saw Nicole get out of the buggy.  
"Nicole! Nicole!" She screamed as she ran towards her friend.  
"How are you, Joan?" Nicole asked, after a quick embrace.  
"My family and I are fine." Joan replied, shrugging. Joan was wearing a pale yellow dress that somehow managed to set her red hair aglow until it seemed to take over her countenance. Nicole had on a low-necked, teal colored dress. "And you?"  
"I'm doing alright, I have a bit of fever, but still well enough to attend the party."  
"Let us go inside." Mr. Louis suggested, taking Mrs. Louis by the arm, and leading her in.  
  
Once inside, Ruby felt a wave of dread and discomfort sweep over her. She hated these formal things. Everyone was so pretty, and the women looked so frail and made of porcelain, as though they should brake if they took more than three steps. And the men insisted on treating them so. Ruby was strong, however, and her body was not frail. She was not too stout, though, and was not curvy like the other ladies.  
Out of the side door, two rambunctious little boys came romping. Each had a wooden sword that he was waving threateningly at the other. Ruby smiled, and wished to be a child again.  
Nicole and Joan chatted and giggled for the first ten minutes, then started to drift away from the center of the party. Ruby followed soundlessly, as though she were their nurse. She hoped that if she stayed close to them, that the boys would assume that she were watching them, and not ask her to dance. Already the center of the room was beginning to fill out with couples dancing to the slow waltzes.  
"Mary!" Mrs. Louis called. Ruby forced herself not to groan, but plastered a pretty smiled onto her face, and turned to look at the woman.  
"Yes, Mother?"  
Mrs. Louis, accompanied by a tall, handsome young man with sun- bleached light hair, quickly walked to her, and began talking.  
Nicole and Joan left the room, leaving Ruby to her mother and the gentleman.  
"Mary, did you know that Mr. Dobson" Mrs. Louis was referring to the man, "is a sailor aboard the Quonqirador?"  
Ruby wanted to laugh. This gangling greenhorn? A sailor? Ruby kept her lips turned into a pleasant smile, no matter how ludicrous the idea sounded.  
"Have you ever been on a boat, Miss Louis?" Dobson asked.  
'Been on a ship?' Ruby almost choked. Of course she had! She'd been sailing as far back as she could remember!  
"Once or twice." Ruby replied, trying to keep her answers short.  
"Would you like to come aboard the Quonqirador some time?" Mr. Dobson asked.  
"No," Ruby replied, blatantly lying through her teeth, "No. I've not much love for boats."  
Dobson and Mrs. Louis talked with Ruby for a while more, but Ruby only replied with short, cool answers that dismissed any pretension that she might be mildly interested in the man.  
As soon the matchmaker and the man left Ruby, to go seek livelier conversation, Ruby was out the door that led to the park in the back. She had to get away from all of these stuffy people! They were so ungracious and stiff.  
  
Ruby wandered the gardens for a while, enjoying the lack of people. Of course every now and again, she'd run across a pair of lovers who were also enjoying the solitude, but they did not bother her.  
  
Ruby was about to turn back, to perhaps find something to eat back at the mansion, but then she heard a shrill scream for help.  
Ruby's blood suddenly turned icy cold, and fear clutched her heart. That was Joan that was screaming!  
"Joan!" Ruby shouted, following the direction that the shouting had come from, and hoping that she might find her sister's friend.  
"Ruby-" Came a soft cry, that was cut short and followed by a strange sort of gasping that sounded almost like a choke.  
'That was Nicole' Ruby's mind spun, and she ran onwards in a daze.  
When she finally arrived at the scene, she saw Nicole in a mound on the earth, and Joan was sitting next to her, weeping and wringing her hands. The child looked up at Ruby with pleading eyes. She was at a loss as to what to do.  
Ruby kneeled next to Nicole, and picked up her limp sister, and turned her over so that she could see the front of her. Her dress was stained with vomit down the front.  
Nicole gasped in that same choking way again, then vomited. Ruby almost gagged, but bit her tongue, set her face into a resolute expression, and put her arm under Nicole's head.  
Nicole gasped feebly again and again.  
"Joan!" Ruby snapped, "What happened?"  
Joan was still wringing her hands and sobbing as she replied "We were walking, and she said that she felt ill, so we stopped, then she threw up, and she fell over and wouldn't get up."  
Ruby's mind immediately ran over the previous days' meals. She almost groaned. That morning for breakfast they'd had clam soup.  
Nicole gasped again, and again vomited.  
"Go get help." Ruby commanded. Joan hesitated, still sobbing, but Ruby picked up a small vine and laid it none too gently across Joan's legs, and with a snapped 'Now' from Ruby, ran off towards her home again.  
Ruby looked over her sister again. Why wasn't she breathing normally?  
Ruby felt her corset biting into her, and squirmed, trying to make it lower, and—wait! That was it! Nicole's corset was keeping her from breathing!  
Ruby turned Nicole over, opened the back of her dress, and busily tried to undo the strings, silently hating herself for not remembering a knife.  
  
By the time Joan returned with help, Nicole was vomiting again, but now breathing normally.  
"Mary! Nicole! Are you both alright?!" Mrs. Louis asked frantically.  
Ruby stood wearily, Nicole in her arms. "I'm fine, but Nicole should go home and rest."  
One of the little boys that had been playing with the wooden swords, cam up behind Ruby, and took up Nicole's corset on his sword.  
"What's this?" He asked, holding up the corset like a flag.  
Several of the older women blushed, and Mr. Louis snatched it from the lad before taking Nicole in his arms and heading towards the carriage.  
  
As the Louises wound their way back to their carriage, Ruby said "I don't think Nicole should have been wearing it! She is too young for a corset!"  
"I'm sorry, dear." Mrs. Louis said, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder, trying to act as a mother.  
"Now I suppose we know better." She tried to laugh to lighten the mood, but even her own laugh seemed halfhearted.  
Ruby glared sullenly out the window.  
Mrs. Louis looked on, a bit sad, then moved her hand to Ruby's head, and smoothed out her hair.  
When Miss Louis's hand reached the hair near her ear, Ruby pulled away with a sudden jerk.  
Ruby bit her lip as tears stung her eyes.  
"I'm sorry dear..." Mrs. Louis apologized quickly.  
"It's alright...I'm worried about Nicole." Ruby continued looking out the window, so Mr. and Mrs. Louis couldn't see her face.  
"Of course you are, Mary, of course you are!" Mr. Louis said softly, "I am too, and so is Mrs. Louis."  
Ruby nodded, but didn't turn from the window.  
  
----------------------------  
  
Ok, I didn't get five reviews *sob*, but because I'm such a gracious, loving...Ok, no one's believing me now...K, so I'm just posting this chapter even though I didn't get five reviews because I want to continue the fic!  
  
I will now be answering reviews! ^_^  
  
Kirsa: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter! Sorry, can't tell! Can't spoil it, can I? Besides, I like leaving people hanging. *Evil laughter and dramatic music*  
  
Brittany Baker: More Jack later! Now is time for establishing characters, setting up the plot, yadda, yadda, yadda...  
  
PiratePrincess91: It's in the past. ^_^; Hmmm...another person asking me to reveal the plot? Not until the time has come! Sorry! I won't even reveal it to my best friend!  
  
Red1: LOL That's funny! I'll have to look at it sometime! Sorry, I got your review late, and just now got to re-update. 0.o; Sorry if that made no sense.  
  
Thanks again to all who reviewed. Sorry for the lack of Sparrow in this chapter, but he will be making his appearance! So remember, patience is a virtue...or so Mrs. Louis would say! ^_^ I'll post the next chapter soon. I already have it written. 


	3. Chapter 3 A Scar and A Story

~ Ruby Of the Sea ~  
  
Chapter 3  
  
A Scar and a Story  
  
Nicole was lying in her bed, silk sheets tucked up to her chin, and Ruby was sitting next to the bed on a three-legged stool.  
Every now and then, Ruby would take the damp cloth that was on Nicole's forehead, run it under cold water, and replace it.  
Nicole was better than she had been that morning at the party, but still ill, and her fever had jumped up.  
Ruby had just cooled the rag, and replaced it on Nicole's forehead, when Nicole propped herself up on her hands.  
"Tell me a story, Ruby." She pleaded.  
Ruby walked over to Nicole, and pushed her back down into a lying position. "You should rest." Was her reply.  
"I will rest, but it will be much more enjoyable to rest while I'm listening to a story." Nicole persisted.  
Ruby looked at her with a skeptical eye, then agreed.  
"But only one, and you had better stay laying down." Ruby warned.  
"I will!" Nicole promised, laying back in her covers and squirming to get comfortable.  
  
*~*_*~*_*~*  
  
When the girl awoke, she found herself still in the barrel, and quite cramped. She moaned as she put her hand to her head, discovered an enormous welt on her head, and found herself to be both very hungry and very thirsty.  
She slowly climbed out of the barrel, and both discovered that it was very dark, and that she was below deck in the hull.  
'It must be night.' She thought as she took her first step.  
Suddenly the floor pitched up and she fell backwards. As she fell, she instinctively cradled her head in her arms, and was grateful for her presence of mind, when she felt her arm hit a trunk severely enough to leave a large bruise.  
As the girl stood for a second time, rubbing her sore arm, she heard sounds above deck.  
She tilted her head to listen better. There was little that she could understand, but she recognized the word 'Pirate' perfectly.  
Both thirst and hunger ignored, the girl ran back to the barrel, and very nearly dove in. Then she heard gunfire. Booming canons that rocked the ship, and sharp 'pings' of rifles that did little to the ship, other than rid it of her passengers.  
For ten minutes that seemed to last ten years, the girl held her breath in fear. Whenever she heard someone approaching the door, she tensed, and struggled to keep from screaming in panic.  
Finally the sounds of running, the tapping of rifle-balls on wood, and the booming and rocking of the canons ceased, and the sound of silence reigned. The girl in the barrel cowered, thinking that the silence was infinitely worse than all of the noise could ever be.  
Then came a sound that perhaps could rival the silence in her hatred: the door to the hull being opened.  
The girl pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle the gasp that she could not hope to restrain.  
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest!" Squawked a parrot.  
"Mr. Cotton, I've no idea 'ow you trained that thar parrot, but unless you're plan'n on eat'n it for supper, I suggest you keep et quiet while's we're search'n for stowaways." Came another voice in a whisper.  
'Pirates...' The girl thought, 'The sailors aboard this ship don't speak like that.'  
"Wind in you sails." Squawked the parrot, again, then silenced.  
The girl was shivering uncontrollably, as she listened to the footsteps coming closer and closer.  
When the footsteps had reached her barrel, they stopped, and she squeezed her eyes shut, certain that the people standing over the barrel could hear her thumping heart.  
When the steps continued walking towards the back of the ship, the girl sighed in relief. She sighed a bit too loudly.  
"About-face, me hearties!" Screamed the parrot.  
Before the girl knew what was happening, she found her barrel turned over, and herself blenching before two pirate's boots.  
"What 'ave we 'ere?" Laughed the stouter pirate, "A stowaway? What's yer name, boy?"  
The girl could have laughed in relief! They thought that she was a boy!  
"What's yer name? What's yer name?" Squawked the parrot again and again.  
The girl was silent, still in a state of joyous shock.  
"If 'e won't talk, then we ought to take 'im to the captain."  
The girl looked up. 'Captain'? No, no, no! A pirate captain?! Perhaps the crew was dense enough to think her a lad, but no pirate captain worth his salt would!  
The girl, in a panic, quickly jumped to her feet, and ran for the door that led up to the deck.  
Though Mr. Cotton could not speak, he was not dumb. He swiftly stuck out his sword in front of the girl.  
The girl felt cold steel bite her skin, and quickly skidded to a halt, but not before the edge could do some damage.  
She quickly took a step back, as blood trickled down her elbow, and fell, crimson, staining the floor.  
The girl clasped her right hand, over a place halfway down her lower, left arm in hopes to staunch the slight bleeding.  
The second pirate took the girl by the elbow.  
"'Ank 'e, Cotton. Now I'll be tak'n 'is lad down to Cap'n Sparrow."  
The girl gasped. 'Sparrow? Jack Sparrow? Captain of the Black Pearl?' She wondered mentally.  
She was still in a confused daze, when she was taken back above deck, and pushed down. She raised herself with her elbows, and looked up at an almost bizarre looking man with hair divided into several braided sections, a strip of cloth tied about his head, and kohl-rimmed eyes. The girl immediately knew that it was Captain Jack Sparrow, and she visibly trembled.  
"Welcome, lad." He grinned after staring at her for a while, revealing several gold teeth, "What be yer name?"  
The girl choked. He thought that she was a boy too? 'All the better.' She thought, as she slowly stood, finding herself half a head shorter than the man. "My name is Jo." The girl lowered her voice's tone, hoping to imitate a man's voice.  
"'Jo'?" Captain Jack asked suspiciously, "Well, Jo, I don't suppose ye are anyone of importance, as me men found you down hiding in a barrel. Ye is a stowaway, are ye not?"  
Jo, or thus we must call her, nodded.  
"Well, Jo, I suppose ye are hoping that I'll spare ye, are ye not?" Captain Jack asked, moving his hands about for expression.  
Jo couldn't help but smiling at the man's movement. His gestures implied that he was drunk, but Jo guessed that he wasn't.  
"Yes, Captain."  
Captain Jack smiled at her reference to him. "You know yer place, lad. That will get ye far in life."  
Captain turned about to speak to another pirate, one that he had just taken on at the last port. "What places does the Pearl have open? Preferably one of lower rank, and something that will keep im busy, savvy?"  
The pirate smiled. "'Ere's the position of cabin boy." He offered.  
Captain Jack looked up, confused. "Where's me old cabin boy?"  
"If you'll 'member, 'e jumped ship at the last port." The same pirate that had found Jo replied in a quiet tone.  
"Aah..." Jack said, nodding his head vaguely. He then turned back to Jo. "Your a tad old fo' being a cabin boy, but I don't s'ppose that you'd be much better at anything else. Your not a cook a' you?"  
Jo was forced to shake her head no because she was biting her lip and trying to keep from smiling.  
That was how Jo had come to be a cabin boy upon the Black Pearl.  
  
*~*_*~*_*~*  
  
By the time Ruby had finished the tale, Nicole was having quite a bit of trouble keeping her eyes open.  
Ruby smiled, as she went to wet the rag again. That was exactly what she had hoped would happen.  
As Nicole yawned for a hundredth time, Ruby went to dampen the now warm cloth again.  
Nicole sat up just as Ruby leaned over to place the rag into the bowl of water on the floor, and noticed Ruby's sleeve fall off her shoulder.  
In the gloom of the dark room, Nicole could not be sure, but she thought that she saw a large, white scar, like that of a brand, lay on her shoulder-blade peeking from under the lace that lined the neckline of Ruby's dress. But it was soon gone out of sight, as Ruby shrugged up the shoulder of her dress, and came back towards her with the cooled rag.  
As the rag was placed upon her brow, Nicole began to wonder just what sort of person her sister had been before she was taken into this luxurious house. What sort of person she still may be, though the true image of that person was hidden behind a cordial smile and an elegant grown.  
  
---------------------- There's the Jack that I know at least two people were hoping for! There isn't much of him in this chapter, but there'll be a lot more of him later!  
  
PiratePrinces91: Thanks for the encouragement, and more Jack relatively soon. I'm going to go with she doesn't like being touched there.  
  
*Sigh* I only got one review for this chapter, but I'm gonna go ahead and post this chapter. /_\ 


	4. Chapter 4 The Storm Part I

(Sorry, but this chapter had to be divided into a three-parter. Also, the comforting song I made up.)  
  
~ Ruby Of the Sea ~  
  
Chapter 4  
  
The Storm  
  
Part I  
  
After a few days of constant day-and-nigh vigilance by Ruby, Nicole's health began to improve, and a week after the disastrous party, Nicole could romp outside with the other children, though she must come in early.  
Ruby happily watched her younger sister become stronger, and was certain that she was much healthier after she had recovered from her illness, than before she became ill.  
  
One Saturday after supper, the family gathered in the sitting room. Everyone was reading, though neither Nicole nor Ruby enjoyed it much. They were not allowed frivolities nor were they allowed to play because Mr. Louis considered Saturday evening to be part of the Sabbath.  
Ruby was reading a very dull tale about a man who was founding a sea- side port, when she saw the family cat, Anastasia, come in the door.  
"Here, kitty, kitty!" Ruby cooed.  
Anastasia looked up at her and blinked, then came over to her and rubbed against Ruby's legs.  
Ruby leaned down and picked her up. She placed the feline in her lap, and tickled its chin, glad to have something else to do besides reading a boring story.  
For a time the cat seemed content to be petted, but soon it began to tense, and Ruby could feel it.  
"What are our plans tomorrow?" Ruby asked abruptly, shattering the silence.  
Mr. Louis looked up, surprised. "We are going to Mass as we always do on the Sabbath, at Port Henry."  
Ruby nodded, frowning, and continued to pet the uptight feline.  
A few minutes later, the cat abandoned Ruby's lap entirely, and took to pacing the floor back and forth across the room.  
"Could we perhaps put off Mass? Just for one day?" Ruby pleaded, nervously watching Anastasia.  
"Mary, I do not know what had brought upon this sudden aversion to religion, but tomorrow we will all be attending Mass unless we should all die in our beds." Mr. Louis said angrily. He was not normally a stern man, but Mr. Louis was very unrelenting when religion was called into question.  
Ruby bit her lip, and said no more for the rest of the evening.  
  
As Ruby slowly clambered into bed, she reflected on the cat's curious behavior. 'Animals have a sense that humans lack, and I should know it.' Ruby thought, drawing the covers to her chin.  
'Rats will always leave the ship before it sinks, groundhogs build their den thicker if it is to be a cold winter, and I have never known a sea-bird to miss a meal of dead fish. Cats and dogs know something that we do not.' Ruby reflected as she fell asleep. She also remembered that she herself had been to tense and edgy to tell Nicole a story tonight as she slipped into the realm of dream.  
  
The next morning, Ruby woke a few hours before the sun.  
As soon as her eyelids fluttered open, Ruby ran to her balcony, and stood stiff as a statue. The wind had a warm, moist lull to it, and every detail of every object stood out like a pin.  
The sunrise was as red as blood. Her face went pale. She turned to her left to look at the pastures where the cows were grazing.  
Ruby's countenance turned white as chalk. All of the cattle were grazing on one small clump with their tails to the north.  
Ruby did not loose a moment. She threw on a satin robe, and ran down the hallway, not bothering to be quiet. She ran past Nicole's room, and past her servant's quarters, on to the room where Mr. and Mrs. Louis were sleeping. On her way there, she saw the cat. It was sitting in a corner, hissing at anything and everything that so much as looked at her. Ruby hastened her steps.  
When she arrived, she did not bother to knock, but flung the doors wide in a sudden and loud gesture of haste.  
Almost before Mr. and Mrs. Louis were fully awake, Ruby was kneeling at the side of their bed.  
"Mr. Louis," Ruby said, her face white and grim as opal, "if you ever loved your family or your life, then you will not ask us to go anywhere near the ocean today."  
"Mary!" Mrs. Louis exclaimed.  
"I know you do not understand this now, but if you value your life, or the life of your wife, your daughter, or my life, then you will not have us go to Port Henry."  
"Mary, you look ill! Is something the matter, dear?" Mrs. Louis was persistent.  
"Should we leave, we will all have something very much the matter with us! We shall all be dead!" Ruby exclaimed.  
"Mary, are you not being a bit dramatic?" Mr. Louis asked, his iron- hard volition wavering.  
"Not in the least."  
Mr. Louis's will teetered for a moment, and that was all it took. "Fine, Mary. If you think that something so dreadful as all that will happen, then we will stay home."  
Ruby nearly collapsed in relief. "Thank you, father." She then picked herself up, and walked to the door, though she was a bit shaky.  
Just outside the door, stood Nicole, a rag doll tucked beneath her arm, and one fist rubbing her eye.  
"Ruby? What's happening?" Nicole asked sleepily.  
"Nothing, Nicole. Go back to bed." Ruby replied, pushing her sister along in front of herself.  
As a maid named Miss Landers passed by, Ruby called out to her.  
"Landers, go buy much bread and cheese."  
"I'm sorry, Mahm," Miss Landers apologized, "but tis the Sabbath, and no stores'll be op'n."  
Ruby frowned. "Search the port and buy any good groceries, but be back before ten in the afternoon!"  
"Yes Mahm." Miss Landers replied as scurried off, wondering what might have come over the young lady.  
"The storm may last a while..." Ruby murmured quietly.  
"Ruby, what's going on?! I'm scared!" Nicole demanded.  
Ruby kneeled by her sister and put on a comforting smile, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to you. Just stay near me and don't go outside today because a storm is coming."  
Nicole still looked up at Ruby worriedly and questioningly.  
Ruby drew Nicole into a tight embrace, and whispered a quick poem to her.  
"Your troubles may reach unto the skies, the problems seem so wide; but Dear, please rest now, shut your eyes, and lay your problems aside. The house's strong walls will be your shields, and irks won't bother your pretty head. The enigma's pain shall soon be healed, but if you cannot stand the issue then do return to bed."  
From between her strong arms, Nicole looked up at her sister's swarthy, sun-tanned, face.  
It seemed disconnected and vague. She realized that Ruby was not signing to her, but remembering the song and its original singer. As Nicole squeezed her sister tightly in a hug, she wondered who the singer was, and what that person was like.  
"Tell me a story."  
Ruby looked up. "What?"  
"Tell me a story." Nicole pleaded, "Tell me about what Captain Jack did once during a storm."  
Ruby comically put a hand to her chin, as though she were thinking very hard, then held her pointer finger up and exclaimed: "I've got it!"  
"Tell it to me!" Nicole pleaded, hopping up and down.  
"Alright, but first let's go down to the sitting room, there we won't be bothering anyone."  
Then Ruby picked up Nicole, and carried her down the flight of stairs, then to the couch that directly faced the already blazing fireplace.  
"Now let me see..." Ruby hummed as she decided where to begin.  
Then, deciding where to start began...  
  
----------------------------------------------- What?! No reviews?! *Sob* *Sigh* I'll go ahead and update anyway.  
  
Well, no reviews to answer; but I'm hoping for at least one for the next chapter! \_/ 


	5. Chapter 5 The Storm Part II

(I made up the song in this chapter as well. And the whole 'Challenging the Sea' thing I made up too.)  
  
Ruby Of the Sea   
  
Chapter 5  
  
The Storm  
  
Part II  
  
Jo had been aboard the Black Pearl for nearly three months, when one day, after cleaning Captain Jack's room, she found him at the helm of the ship, gazing across the water.  
"Captain, your quarters have been cleaned. What might I do next?" She asked, wiping her brow. She felt extremely sticky and hot, though the sky was a bit overcast.  
"Come 'ere." Jack commanded, patting the rail next to where he stood.  
Jo nodded obediently, and came up next to the captain. "What would you have me do, Captain?"  
"Jo," Captain Jack began, looking a bit less drunk than he usually did. Jo had come to realize that this meant that they were either going to raid a port soon, or that something was about to happen.  
"Jo," the Captain repeated, "There's goin' 't be a storm comin' soon."  
Jo looked up at the proud man standing next to her. So that was why he looked semi-sober: a storm.  
"Get th' men and tell 'em to go below deck. I don't want any of 'em to go overboard."  
Jo nodded again, and scampered off to obey.  
"You're a smart lass." Captain Jack said softly to Jo, though it was not intended for her ears.  
  
Soon the crew was all in the hold. The storm had begun, just as Jack had predicted that it would, and it was a terrible storm to be sure.  
The storm tossed the Pearl about, though Captain Jack, the only man above deck, was battling it bravely and trying to steer the ship. After nearly thirty minutes, however, the Captain came back in, tired and thoroughly soaked.  
"The Pearl'll 'ave to weather it, me hearties." He said wearily, "She's stronger than I be."  
The crew was silent and oppressed, realizing that even their captain could not stand the storm.  
"Well?" Captain Sparrow asked, suddenly reviving, "Get some rest, you flea-bitten bilge rats! As soon as the storm breaks, we'll be heading for port!"  
Echoes of "Ai, Captain!" were echoed by the sounds of retreating feet, and eventually silence.  
Jo had begun to follow the crew down to the crew's quarters, when she heard the Captain speak.  
"Jo, come to me quarters."  
After one quick glance back towards the rest of the sailors, Jo obeyed and followed Jack.  
  
Jo had followed Jack up to his quarters, and had talked with him for quite a while.  
During one lull in the conversation, Jo had glanced up into Jack's eyes. Their usual gaiety and joy was gone, and a void of emptiness left behind. Jo realized that Jack was speaking with her just as much to calm her worries, as to take his own mind off the storm.  
After a few hours, Jo nearly fell over asleep, despite the ship's crazy swayings and lurchings.  
"Go 't bed, lad." Jack said quietly, putting an arm around Jo's shoulders.  
"Where, Captain?" Jo asked, stumbling in weariness.  
Jack led Jo to his own bed. "I really don't s'pose I'll be do'n much sleep'n meself."  
Jo was so tired, that she didn't bother to argue, and fell asleep even before her head hit the pillow.  
  
The sound of a sickening crack woke Jo with a start that could have sent her running across the ocean.  
A hard thud followed, and Jo clutched her hands over her ears. She wasn't sure why, but she screamed.  
It was high and shrill, and there was no doubt in her mind that everyone within a mile's radius heard her.  
Before she was really sure what was happening, Jo found herself in someone's arms. Whoever it was, was rocking her back and forth.  
Jo didn't care who it was. She began sobbing into the person's arms, clutching at whoever it was's sleeves, and letting her tears run.  
"Shush now..." The person whispered, "Calm yerself, love."  
Jo lifted her head, and found herself looking into Captain Jack's eyes. They searched her face intently. His expression then was so much different now than it usually was, but Jo felt that she like his features either way.  
"I don't suppose that you still think me a lad anymore..." Jo said quietly.  
"No, love." Captain Jack replied, the soberness that had been there a moment before disappearing like dew before the sun, "But then again, I ner did think you a lad. The crew thought you were, and you didn't seem to wish to be known as a lass, so I didn't bother to correct them. 'At way, you got what you wanted, and I didn't 'ave to correct anyone." Jack ranted.  
Jo listened to the ranting, quite content not to speak, then suddenly the boat lurched very harshly.  
Jo panicked, and clutched at Jack's shirt again. Teas trickled down her cheeks, and Captain Jack held her, soberness returning again.  
After a moment, Jack began to rock back and forth again, and sang a song to Jo.  
"The waves may reach unto the skies, the waters seem so deep; but Jo Dear, please rest now, close your eyes, and gently fall to sleep. The Pearl's staunch walls will be your shields, my arms shall make sure you stay. The sea may inflict her wound, though it will be healed. But if you cannot stand the wind, then, Dear, I'll drive it away."  
When the song had ended, Jo looked up at Jack curiously. "'Drive it away'?" She asked, "How would you do that?"  
"Don't you know, love?" Jack asked, smiling, "It's a bit of a tradition;" Sparrow turned his gaze towards the wall, "if'n a pirate captain requires that a storm withdraw, 'en he goes to the stern, and shouts out 'is challenge." Jack returned his gaze to Jo, "'At's when th' fun begins. If'n th' captain can stay at the stern, then the storm'll be obliged to withdraw."  
Jo frowned dubiously, but Jack's eyes met hers with complete sincerity.  
Jo cocked her head, "Have you done it before?"  
"Ai!" Jack replied, "Several times. It always worked, and I've not died yet." Jo was forced to smile.  
With one nod, Captain Jack stood up, and headed for the door. He placed his three-cornered hat on his head, positioned one hand on the latch that held the door shut, then seemed to hesitate. He turned around, then said: "I've one request to ask of ye, Jo."  
"What, Captain?"  
"Would you give me a good-luck kiss, love?" Jack grinned.  
Jo was a bit surprised to say the least, but after a moment, nodded.  
Jack took off his hat again, walked back to Jo, and cupped his hands around her face.  
Jo felt her cheeks blush, but Jack did not care, if indeed he even noticed. He firmly kissed her.  
After a moment, Jack released her, and Jo fell dizzily onto Sparrow's bed.  
Jack returned to the door, while placing his hat back on his head, and after a quick: "Gu' bye, love" lifted the latch and charged into the storm.  
Jo raced to the doorframe and watched the nearly insane pirate captain head to the stern. 'What's he doing?' Jo wondered as Jack took up a rope and tied it about his middle.  
Captain Jack was nearly at the very front of the ship, when a wave crashed over him, and he was washed overboard.  
"Jack!" Jo screamed, as she flung caution to the howling wind, and ran to where she had seen Jack's head before he had gone over the edge into the crashing and crushing waves.  
When she reached the edge of the ship, Jo looked over, and saw Sparrow dangling at the end of the rope that he had tied about his waist.  
Jo wasn't sure weather to think the figure heroic, or comical, but hauled on the rope to bring him up either way.  
"Captain Jack, love. Captain." Sparrow corrected her when he was back upon the deck.  
Jo was about to shout something rather crude above the storm, but Jack put an arm about her waist, and said to her: "If'n you plan to stay out 'ere in th' storm, then you need a rope."  
Jo nodded, and Jack found a rope, and tied one end to a huge splintered stump in the middle of the ship, and the other around Jo's hips.  
Jo gaped as she realized that it used to be the main-sail, and that it's falling was what had caused her to wake.  
While Jo had been staring at the stump, Jack had already made his way back to the stern, and was motioning to Jo to follow him.  
Jo fought her way against the storm, and eventually reached Jack.  
Jack placed Jo in front of him, one arm about her shoulders, and then shouted out into the storm a challenge.  
"Ocean deep, Ocean fair, I be Captain of me ship! The Black Pearl challenges yer reign of terror! If I stand, then get ye gone, but if I fall, then sing yer song."  
As though in reply, a streak of lightning crashed into the sea, and a thunder crashed so loudly, that it left Jo's ears ringing.  
Jo looked up at Jack, and found him to be concentrating on the storm with as much intensity as though mere will-power alone could stop the waves.  
Jo felt a wave crash over both of their heads, but when the water had gone, Jo found Captain Jack's arm around her shoulders just as it had been before, and Jack's expression likewisely unchanged.  
The storm bellowed and crashed, screamed and crawled, punched and kicked, but nothing it could do seemed to be able to make the captain reconcile or leave.  
After nearly three hours, Jo watched as the sea became calm, and the wind howled less and less until it stopped altogether.  
"Well," Jack said seriously as the sun broke over the horizon, "That was a fair bit o fun; wasn't it, love?" His drunken character had returned.  
Jo laughed, threw her arms about Jack's neck, and kissed him; Jo seemed to be floating in a dazed, happy, pink fog.  
When the kiss was over, Jack pushed his hat on his head over in a crazily cocked manner, and announced that he would buy Jo some rum at the very next port they came to.  
"No offense Captain," Jo said, seriously, "but I think your ship could probably use your gold more than I could." She motioned to the broken mainsail behind Jack's back.  
Jack frowned and turned around. His expression changed immediately when he saw the condition of his ship.  
"My ship!" He exclaimed, running towards the stump.  
Jo shook her head, and walked to the side of the ship. There in the water was floating the mast. It was going to be a long day.  
  
----------------------------------------------- Ta-da! It's the next chapter! Takes bow Wow! A whole chapter of story! LOL Who doesn't like a good story?  
  
PiratePrinces91: Enough Jack? Grin I prefer to tell the story as it happened rather than how they tell it. 


	6. Chapter 6 The Storm Part III

(This is the last part of 'The Storm' segment!)  
  
Ruby Of the Sea   
  
Chapter 6  
  
The Storm  
  
Part III  
  
At about the part in the story when the storm began, the storm outside the house also commenced. Nicole shuddered and scooted closer to Ruby.  
All the time Ruby was telling the tale, she kept her eyes on the fire before them. If she felt any emotion, she buried it and continued.  
In the end, after Captain Jack's storm had ended, Nicole had sighed, glanced at the window, and wished that their own storm could end just as nicely.  
  
The day continued, afterwards, with nothing altogether unusual happening that might have happened during any other storm, but Nicole found it unbearable.  
"I wish Captain Jack were here..." She whispered, embracing Ruby's middle in a childish gesture.  
Ruby looked down at Nicole, humor dancing in her eyes, "And what would you ask of him, little one?"  
Nicole frowned at Ruby for a moment before answering matter-of-factly that she would ask him to drive away the storm.  
Ruby smiled down at Nicole. "Who has declared that I cannot drive away a storm just as well as Captain Jack Sparrow?"  
Nicole laughed, "You're not a pirate captain! You're not even a sailor."  
"I may not be a captain, nor a pirate, but you'd better bet your life that I'm a sailor." Ruby lowered her head so that she was even with Nicole. "Now I'm going to tell you something that I've never told anyone. My father was a merchant sailor, and I was born at sea."  
Nicole smiled at this new revelation of her sister's, and Ruby continued.  
"But one day my father fell deathly ill, and the first mate steered." Ruby shook her head. "My father was a fool to let that man behind the wheel. He ran us against rocks. Our ship was ruined, but the entire crew escaped with their lives and nothing more. My father then became so ill and frail that he could no longer sail.  
"My family then moved to the shore. I didn't like it, and when my father and mother both died-" Ruby faltered, "No...that's enough." She looked away.  
Nicole was silent, and then jumped out of Ruby's lap. A clash of lightning caused Nicole to fall forward in terror, and she clutched at her head.  
Ruby laughed, and then took Nicole back up into her arms.  
"Come along, Nicole. I see that you cannot stand the storm. If you'd like, I could drive it away."  
Nicole looked back up at her sister, fear quaking in her eyes.  
Ruby laughed again. "Come now, I won't be hurt."  
Ruby walked up the main stairs, Nicole still trembling, and told her not to be afraid. "Jack wasn't afraid of any storm." Ruby reminded her.  
"No," Nicole admitted, "He wasn't."  
"Then neither shall we." Ruby said staunchly.  
When they arrived in Ruby's room, Ruby placed Nicole on her bed, opened the door that led out onto her balcony, and then, with one last smile at Nicole, went into the raging storm.  
From the downy comforter, Nicole could not hear what it was that Ruby shouted out into the storm, but she wished that she could have.  
To Ruby it seemed that the storm did not at first heed her challenge, but after a few moments, it was as though it had finally realized that she was not jesting, and then it put up a fight.  
It howled and it bit, it clawed and tore just as much as it had Sparrow, but still Ruby did not move. She stared straight ahead. Lightning struck at near-by tree. "Are you trying to scare me?" She laughed into the winds. The Storm responded by taking about five tiles from the roof of the house, and hurling them at Ruby.  
Ruby ignored them as they landed at least three feet behind her, and shattered as they hit the ground. But to poor Nicole, who watched warily from inside, they seemed terrors that could have hit her beloved sister.  
The icy rain began to pour down more heavily than it had before, and with it came small, sharp ice.  
The rain did not bother Ruby, but the ice cut her and she was forced to turn her head, lest they sting her eyes. But after only a few minutes, the sky was absent of more of the ice-thorns, and it nearly stopped raining.  
As the wind quipped her hair about her face, Ruby laughed. It was deep, though scorning, and caused Nicole to catch her breath.  
The Storm had done its best, but had failed.  
It had failed pitifully.  
"Leave now!" Ruby said scornfully, "You've done you best, but it was not enough! I am the victor!"  
The Storm howled a bit more, expending what strength it had left.  
"Leave!" Ruby commanded, lifting her right palm to the sky.  
Ruby's left sleeve fell again, just as it had while Nicole had been ill, only this time, it fell lower, revealing a bold, capital 'P'.  
Nicole cupped a hand over her mouth.  
"You're a pirate!"  
Ruby kept her shoulders still, but twisted her beck to look at Nicole. Ruby's eyes, filled with surprise and shock, met Nicole's eyes, brimming with tears of terror and disbelief.  
"Nicole-" Ruby began, but she had not the time to continue, because in a departing gesture, the Storm had hurled one last tile at Ruby, just as a scoundrel would hurl one last insult at one who he may have escaped from.  
"Ruby!" Nicole screamed, as the tile hit Ruby just behind her ear.  
Nicole watched unbelievingly as the scene played forth as though in slow-motion. Just as the tile hit Ruby, it shattered into pieces, and Ruby crumpled to the ground unconscious.  
Her body acting while her mind went numb, Nicole raced to her sister's side, and drug her in.  
As she tugged at her sister's arms, Nicole shouted out something that sounded vaguely like: 'Mother! Father! Get a doctor!'  
Mr. and Mrs. Louis hurried into the room, and when they saw Ruby lying unconscious on the floor, Mr. Louis quickly scooped Ruby into his arms, and carried her out of the bedroom.  
He shouted instructions to several maids as he headed towards the sick room near the front of the house, followed by anxious Nicole and fretful Mrs. Louis.  
Mr. Louis headed out the door and was followed by Ms. Louis, but Nicole stayed by Ruby's side.  
Nicole wasn't sure how long she had been by Ruby's side, before the doctor came into the sick room, but even when he had, she refused to leave.  
  
After nearly an hour of examining his unconscious victim, the doctor left to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Louis. Nicole deemed that Ruby would be fine if she only left for a small period of time, and silently followed the doctor into the sitting room.  
"Mr. and Mrs. Louis," The doctor began, looking troubled, "it is my wish to be honest with you, and now I honestly tell you that this girl may not live through the night."  
Mrs. Louis gasped, and Mr. Louis put an arm about her shoulders as the doctor continued, "She has been hit there before, and the scull is cracked. Thankfully, it isn't putting pressure on her brain, but it isn't giving any protection to what may strike her either."  
Then for a few moments, silence reigned. Nicole looked away from the doctor, tears brimming in her eyes, and threatening to overflow.  
Nicole was slightly surprised when she heard Ruby whimper softly in the sick room. Nicole immediately picked up her skirts, and ran to her sister's side.  
"Ruby? Ruby! Are you awake? Are you alright? Ruby, please wake up!" Nicole cried, kneeling next to the bed.  
Ruby opened her eyes, but they were unfocused, and drowsy. "Pearl..." she whispered.  
"Pearl...?" Nicole wondered, as she stretched a hand forth, and placed it gently on Ruby's forehead. Nicole drew her hand back quickly. It was surprisingly hot.  
Just then, Miss Landers passed by.  
"Landers!" Nicole called, "Get me a basin of cool water, and a rag!"  
The maid nodded, and hurried off.  
Mr. Louis, Mrs. Louis, and the doctor came back into the room as Nicole smoothed Ruby's covers in a nervous, helpless gesture.  
Ruby stared at the ceiling, and then murmured several other words, none of which made sense, and then whispered the word "Jack"  
"Jack?" Mr. Louis asked, "Who is Jack?"  
Nicole bit the inside of her lower lip. She dare not reply that Jack was a pirate captain!  
"Dobson's first name is Jack!" Mrs. Louis exclaimed, "But I can't imagine how she ever found out. The girl wasn't in the same room with the lad for over thirty minutes!"  
"She may have become delirious." The doctor offered, "It is relatively common among cases such as these."  
"Well, I'm not taking any chances." Mrs. Louis replied.  
At that same time, Miss Landers entered the room again, carrying the bowl and a towel. She set it near Ruby's bed, next to Nicole, and then curtsied as she prepared to leave the room.  
"Landers!" Mrs. Louis called.  
"Yes, 'm lady?"  
"Do you know if the Quonqirador is in the port?"  
"No, mum. No ship's entered th port since th storm. She'll be back tomorrow, though, if the weather stays clear."  
  
After a few words of thanks to the doctor, and his bill being paid, he left the house.  
Soon after that, everyone prepared for bed, except for Nicole. She was determined to stay by her sister.  
"I'll call you immediately if she wakes up or anything else happens." Nicole promised, as Mr. and Mrs. Louis left the sick room to go to bed.  
"Alright, dear. But remember, if you get too tired, you can always have one of the maids look after her for you."  
"I would never do that." Nicole whispered when she and Ruby were the only persons left in the room.  
"Captain...?" Ruby murmured as past and present meshed together in her mind's eye.  
As reality faded into memory, Ruby began speaking.  
Nicole leaned in to catch her sister's words, and found that she was telling more of the tale of Jack Sparrow.  
  
----------------------------------------------- I'm so mean! Grin  
  
Pirateprincess91: Honestly, I don't have any idea where that thing came from. It just seemed right. 0.o; Yes, everything will be revealed in the end!  
  
Many things will be revealed in the next chapter! Also, perhaps you should be fearing for Jack's survival. Why you ask? Next chapter will tell! I'm so evil. Grin 


	7. Chapter 7 A Tale of Departure

I have decided to move the comment box to the top, because...um...because I feel like it!  
  
PiratePrincess91: Yes, I can be mean. But I'm not making you wait for a few more days for the story! Yah, I don't particularly like killing/hurting my characters, or any characters, but it must be done at times. Poor Nicole.  
  
----------------------------------------------- (It's the second to last chapter. Sad, ne? Well, I'll make up for it with a long chapter! Five pages on Microsoft Word!)  
  
Ruby Of the Sea   
  
Chapter 7  
  
A Tale of Departure  
  
Jo watched the moon-lit sky as the Black Pearl sailed across deep waters. They were nearly at a port named Royal.  
"It's beautiful." Jo sighed as she looked up at the moon through the porthole. It was nearly full...just one more day and it would be.  
"What's beautiful, love?" Captain Jack asked.  
Jo jumped slightly. She hadn't heard him come in, and hadn't been expecting an interruption for at least three hours when it was her turn for lookout.  
"The moon." Jo replied, as Jack placed his arms about her shoulders. Jo crossed her arms over her chest, and put her hands in Jack's.  
"Ai," Captain Sparrow agreed, than added "but perhaps a swig o rum'll add to its beauty?"  
Jo laughed. "Captain, is rum the only thing ever on your mind?"  
"You're a nice preoccupation." He said, giving her a slight squeeze.  
The ship gave a sudden lurch, that threw them both off balance.  
"Bloody Navy..." Jack muttered, remembering that the reason that they were headed for Port Royal was for repairs for the Black Pearl. They had been in a duel with the navy a few days ago, and the ship was nearly falling apart.  
"For some reason I get the impression that you don't like Port Royal, Captain." Jo said.  
"No," He replied, "I like the port alright—pretty place—but I have what you might call a foe there."  
"I thought you'd patched it up with Norrington."  
"Ai! Norrington is a good man. But...well...his cousin doesn't like me much."  
Jo turned to look at Jack. "I have a feeling that he didn't come to that state of mind without a bit of personal experience."  
"It wasn't my fault that he was getting married in the church that I was planning on plundering!" Jack claimed indignantly.  
Jo started laughing. "You seem to have a bit of trouble keeping on the good side of the law, my good captain."  
Jack shrugged. "Pirate."  
  
That was when things had taken a turn for the worst. The Navy somehow found out that they were coming into port, and had met them with full artillery.  
The Pearl and her crew had put up as brave of a fight as any could boast, but in the end, it amounted to nothing. The navy captured both the crew, and the Pearl.  
The fact that the Black Pearl was robbed of him yet again, tore down the captain noticeably.  
They were all to be either shipped off to Cuba as slaves to work in the sugar plantations, or be hung. There would be a trial within three days of their capture.  
  
"Th' capt'n's bad off," Gibs said solemnly, "His 'art's broken over loos'n the Pearl."  
"I should'a left long ago." Anna-Maria exclaimed, hitting her fist on the stone wall of the jail-cell that they were all trapped in. "I got me money!"  
"You're a cold hearted jellyfish, aren't you?" Jo said spicily. The crew still regarded her as male, and she had gained their respect, though her mouth often spoke her mind without chewing her words.  
Within half a second, Jo found herself slung against the wall by Anna- Maria, infuriated at being criticized. Anna-Maria had pinned her against the wall by taking the metal place that had born her meal for the day, and pushing it against Jo's throat.  
"Jellyfish that." Anna-Maria hissed.  
Jo retaliated by kicking Anna-Maria behind the knee. Anna-Maria lost her balance, and Jo pushed her to the ground.  
"I just did."  
Anna-Maria jumped back up, but the crew held her back.  
"There's no need to be killing one another," A guard laughed scornfully, "You'll be hanging soon enough. Starting with the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow." He left the room with a loud, mocking laugh.  
A tremble, half of fear, half of rage, ran through Jo's body. She looked over to where the captain sat against the far end of the cell.  
His hat was askew, a few of his braids hanging in his face, and his eyes stared beyond the opposite wall.  
Jo walked up to him. She had a feeling that the captain was not mourning nor sulking.  
"Captain?"  
"Jo, I'm going to make sure that you're not one of us that 'angs." The pirate kept his eyes to the far side of the cell.  
"What?" Jo's mind struggled to grasp what Jack was getting at.  
"Jo, I need ye to do a favor for me if I can get yer neck out of the noose. I need ye to go to a blacksmith's shop. His name is Turner. Tell 'im that I'm having some leverage problems." Jack grinned.  
"And what if I say no, Captain?"  
"That's an order, lass." Were the captain's only words. They were quiet, but filled with authority.  
  
The next morning was the trial. If it could be called a trial. All of the crew's charges were read against them, first as an entire crew. The offenses were plundering various ports, attacking the Royal Navy, resisting arrest, escaping imprisonment (various times), and general lawlessness. Then the charges against particular pirates from the crew were read, beginning with Mr. Gibs, and ending with the Captain.  
The judge was still busy reading out Sparrow's charges, when he came upon 'leading a battalion of Pirates in attacking various ports and ships' when Jack had an idea.  
"Judge...?" He grinned, waving a hand slightly to get the man's attention.  
"What is it, pirate Jack?"  
Captain Jack resisted the urge to correct him, and continued: "Judge, what would happen if I'd taken on a hostage and forced them into piracy, and—what else did you say?—'general lawlessness'?"  
"You would be hanged." Was the curt reply.  
"But there's not too much chance that you won't be." Laughed a bystander.  
"I mean to the hostage." The pirate captain clarified.  
"They would be released and given sufficient means to establish a trade and living conditions suitable to that person or persons."  
Jack squinted slightly as he sorted out exactly what the judge meant by that, and the Judge continued reading the list of charges that was growing to be quite lengthy.  
"And what would you say if I told you one of me crew was a captive who I'd taken aboard?" Jack asked.  
The Judge looked at Jack over the scroll that he was reading from. "What are you getting at Sparrow?"  
"That's 'Captain' Sparrow; and I am saying that one of me crew isn't a pirate, and that that pir—person should be released."  
Jo felt her heartbeats quicken, and she moved towards the center of the group of pirates that she was standing among.  
"Well for Heaven's sake tell us which one it is!" The judge replied angrily.  
"Jo. He's a good lass-lad," Jack quickly corrected himself, but the entire court had already heard it.  
Quick murmurs of disbelief came from the crew and the court, but Jo knew that Jack's 'slip' was intentional.  
Two hands parted the crew of pirates, and before Jo could protest, she plucked out from amongst those she knew, and thrust before a whispering and mean-eyed jury.  
Jo however was far from letting any sign of fear show, and stood strait and unafraid.  
The judge feigned sympathy and worry, and asked: "Have they hurt you, child?"  
Jo stared at the judge. "Of course not! They are respectable, good men and pirates!"  
A quiet ripple of laughter ran through the jury, and Jo met them with an angry eye.  
"How old are you...Jo?" The judge asked, using the name Jack had given for her.  
Jo though about lying to the judge, and saying that she was twenty five, but instead admitted that she was not twenty.  
"Then you shall be placed with a foster family to be reared among until you at least reach the age of twenty, or find a respectable man to marry." The judge banged his gravel on a block of wood provided.  
"What about the pirates?" Asked a man standing to the judge's right.  
With a malicious gleam in his eye, the judge replied: "Hang them at noon."  
A cheer arose from all those assembled who did not happen to be part of the crew of the Black Pearl.  
As rough hands grabbed Jo's arms and led her out the door, Jack caught her eye.  
"Remember yer orders." He said slowly as Jo was led out the door and onto the street of Port Royal.  
  
As soon as Jo was out of the courtroom, she began struggling to get free from her captors with all the strength she could muster.  
After a few near-escapes, Jo dove with her full force towards her left, then caught herself just before she would have been unable to stop her fall, and dove towards her right.  
Her two guards had been thrown off balance by her sudden movement towards the left, and when she went right, she managed to slip from their grasp.  
Jo ran down one ally, and up another, and waited for about five minutes. She didn't hear the guards coming after her, so she assumed that they took a wrong turn.  
Jo then set about finding this Blacksmith's shop that Jack had told her about.  
"Do you know where I might find a blacksmith's shop run by a mister Turner?" Jo asked one old lady who was pulling a little girl behind her.  
The old lady sniffed. She could tell that Jo was a pirate, and didn't plan on becoming aquatinted with the scoundrel.  
"Please!" Jo begged.  
"It's down that street!" The little girl pointed.  
The old woman gave the girl a jerk, and then hurried on.  
"You don't talk to people like that, child! They'll kill you in your sleep!" She reprimanded the girl.  
Jo ran down the street that the child had indicated, and soon found the smithy that she had been looking for.  
She pounded on the door. No one answered. She pounded again until her knuckles were numb, but still no one came.  
In anger, Jo kicked the door, then ran back down the streets she had come from, on the way getting instructions to the gallows that were to be used, and ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the location specified.  
With an anxious glance at the sky, Jo noticed that it was nearly noon. Jo hastened her steps, though her legs screamed in protest.  
Finally, she could see the top part of the gallows, and the rope that was bound around its victim's neck.  
She knew that Jack was the victim chosen, because all around her whispers of 'Sparrow', 'Captain Jack', 'That Sparrow Captain', and also more crude names, were being circulated, like blood in one's veins.  
Jo pressed onwards, her eyes glued to the rope that hung from the top of the gallows.  
Then to Jo's horror, there was the slight popping sound of the door underneath the gallows' victim dropping away.  
Jo stopped running, and fell to her knees. The world stood still. The only thing that seemed to be moving was the sea of people gathered around the gallows where she knew that the pirate that she loved hung.  
Jo felt four rough hands grab her again. But this time, two grabbed her arms, and the other two her ankles.  
Jo made no movement to resist.  
She was thrown into a small cell to await the ship that was to take her to a new family.  
  
Jo sat in the gloom of the cell, and thought. She though of her life before she became a stow-away for the first and final time, she thought of the Pearl, but mostly the though of Captain Jack Sparrow.  
'He wouldn't want me to stop living because he died.' Jo realized after many hours of brooding.  
Jo then determined to allow Jack to live again through stories. She would tell stories to children. To any child that would listen; but she mustn't let anyone who may have influence over her know that she had loved a Pirate Captain. She would take back her true name. The name her parents had given her, and she would live.  
"I am Ruby." Jo said slowly, "Ruby of the Sea." 


	8. Chapter 8 To End the Tale

PiratePrincess91: I DON'T like killing/hurting my characters, but I have to do it sometimes...usually for plot-related reasons. But don't worry—I just...oh, just read the story!  
  
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(Oooo...It's the last chapter. / But I'll add a epilogue to explain a few things. So there WILL be another chapter, but it isn't an OFFICIAL chapter.)  
  
Ruby Of the Sea   
  
Chapter 8  
  
An End To the Tale  
  
Nicole had stayed awake all night, listening to the story unfold, and keeping watch over her adoptive sister.  
As Ruby told the story, her face expressed all of the emotion that it had restrained while telling the previous segments. She smiled, cringed, wept, and rage filled her weak frame.  
During the end of her story, Ruby's tears had created little rivers that fell from her eyes, towards the sides of her face, and eventually collected into little lakes that wet her hair.  
  
At about three in the morning, Ruby fell into an uneasy sleep, and Nicole gratefully accepted the few minutes of rest for herself that it allowed.  
It was only about 4:15 AM, when Ruby suddenly sat up. Her eyes were glazed over, half in a dream, and half in a hallucination, but she seemed aware of her surroundings.  
"Jack!" She shouted weakly, pushing the covers off of herself and standing to head towards the door.  
Nicole quickly jumped into her way. "Lay back down, Ruby! Captain Jack isn't here!" Nicole's eyes filled with tears, "He won't ever be here..."  
"No..." Ruby's eyes were unfocused and started past Nicole, "I have to go save him...find Turner..."  
With a start, Nicole realized that Ruby was reliving those moments before Jack's death. "No, Ruby. Lay down. You can't help him."  
Ruby was violent with delirium, and harshly pushed Nicole aside, dreaming that she was one of the guards that had restrained her before.  
"Someone help me!" Nicole shouted out the door as she desperately held Ruby back by keeping a grip on Ruby's skirts.  
Then suddenly, all of Ruby's strength left her, and Ruby fell forward, and was caught just in time by Mr. Louis, who had heard Nicole's shout, and rushed in.  
As he placed Ruby back into the bed, Mrs. Louis came in too.  
"Jack...come...ship..." Ruby muttered disjointedly as she passed out.  
"Well," Mrs. Louis said stoutly, "that settles it. Nicole, go and get dressed. We are going to the port to go and meet Dobson!"  
As Nicole looked up at her mother's tired, worried face, she realized that it would do no good to protest, and she headed back towards her room with a heavy sigh.  
  
Within an hour, Mrs. Louis and Nicole were at the port, waiting for Dobson's ship to come in.  
Nicole looked around, quite bored. There were only a few people at the docks: a few navy men; a woman in whooped skirts; a dirty beggar; a group of ragged children standing in a circle, poking and prodding at something; a drunken, swaggering man with dreadlocks; a—wait!  
Nicole whirled about to look at the man that had just walked past. 'A drunken, swaggering man'?  
"Captain Jack!" The word escaped her lips before she could stop them, and she could not call them back in.  
Nicole glanced nervously at her mother.  
"No, no dear. Dobson isn't here yet, and do not refer to an elder by his first name." Mrs. Louis hadn't even looked away from the ocean.  
Nicole bit her lip. It couldn't be Jack...Jack was dead. The drunk man, however, had stopped in his tracks and was staring at Nicole a bit strangely.  
Nicole quietly slipped from her mother's side, and ran over to the man.  
"Jack Sparrow?" She breathed, a bit awed.  
"'Captain', love. 'Captain'." He corrected her, but with neither relish, nor disgust in the slightest.  
Nicole stared up at the pirate that she had once dreamed of meeting. He looked scruffy, drunk, sad, and almost lifeless. His looking scruffy was to be expected, living at sea for months at a time, and if the stories that she had heard held any accuracy at all, then his being drunk could be dismissed. But his sad and lifelessness was a bit unnerving. He was supposed to be gung-ho and sprightly!  
After a moment's silence, Jack spoke again.  
"What is it ye be lookin for?"  
Nicole breathed deeply to calm her nerves.  
"Jack," she whispered, and the captain leaned in to hear what she was saying, "I know Ruby."  
Jack straightened, and over at Nicole quizzically.  
"Who be Ruby?" He asked.  
Nicole shook her head, "Oh, you don't know her as Ruby!" She nearly laughed, "You would only know her as Jo!"  
The look that then came into Jack's kohl-rimmed eyes was one of a mix of surprise and joy, but before he could ask her anything Nicole was being jerked back by Mrs. Louis who had just seen Dobson getting off of a ship, and was quickly headed towards him.  
Jack followed behind Nicole at a safe distance so that the Mrs. Louis wouldn't be suspicious, but close enough to hear anything that Nicole might say.  
Nicole tried to mouth the location of her home to Jack, but she only discovered that the Captain wasn't very good at lip-reading.  
Finally, when Mrs. Louis was talking with Mr. Dobson, Nicole managed to wrench her small hand from her mother's and hurried back to Jack.  
Nicole quickly told him the address of her home, just before Mrs. Louis took her hand again, and quickly began taking home.  
"Hurry, Jack! She's hurt!" She called as she dissapeared into the crowd.  
"Dear! I've told you twice today not to refer to Mr. Dobson as 'Jack'!" Mrs. Louis scolded as they hurried back to the house.  
  
'Jo, hurt?' Captain Jack was still taking everything in. He had to get to the house that the child had told him about soon...but he had only ever been to this port once before!  
Jack tilted his hat further, and began stalking the group of three. He had followed them quite a ways, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, and his eyes met a navy-man who he had stolen from once.  
"It's you!" The man grinned, "You'll be paying for what you stole from me earlier, you filthy pirate!" And with that, the man swung a fist at Jack's face.  
The captain easily dodged. "Do we have to do this now?" Jack asked in an annoyed tone.  
Obviously the navy thought so, and tried a rapid succession of punches, though all poorly aimed.  
Again, Jack dodged, and retaliated by punching the man in the face.  
The man, now looking a bit tired, was angry, and plowed into Jack with his shoulders.  
This tactic took Jack by surprise, but he slipped away from the navy- man, and in the process managed to trip him up.  
Before the man could stand back up, Jack took the but of his gun, and hit the man's head with it, knocking him out effectively.  
A bit angrily, Captain Sparrow put up his gun, and looked about for the party he had been trailing.  
He groaned. They were gone, lost in the crowd, and left him with little idea how to get to the Louis household.  
With a sigh, the pirate captain began asking for instructions.  
  
When Dobson, Nicole, and Mrs. Louis returned to the home, Ruby was quite possibly more delirious that she had ever been in her life.  
The shadows in the ceiling took on the shapes of ships and battalions, and the imagined waves sent them tumbling and tossing.  
As the group of three that had just been at the port, the ceiling's shadows took a new form in Ruby's eyes.  
It was not a boat or the ocean, they first took on a sort of ovalish shape, and then details began forming. Two eyes; a nose; a mouth lifted in a drunken, yet friendly, smile; and finally a braided beard and hair entered her hallucination.  
"Jack." She smiled and lifted her hand, trying to touch the image that floated tauntingly just out of her reach.  
Ruby closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she was on the Black Pearl again. It was dark, but she could still see well.  
Ruby walked to the window, and found that the moon was full. Then she felt arms around her waist. She turned to find Captain Jack Sparrow holding her.  
"Jack!" She said, "I thought they had killed you!"  
Jack didn't reply, but drew her in, and Ruby closed her eyes, ready for the kiss.  
When it didn't come, she opened her eyes again, and there was the Judge from the court.  
He grinned wickedly, still holding her as Jack had been until she had closed her eyes.  
"Let go of me!" She screamed, and pushed away, but her hands went through him as if he were smoke.  
She screamed again, but this time, she clawed furiously, and managed to escape from his arms.  
Ruby ran until she was backed against a wall. The wall turned 90 degrees, and suddenly Ruby snapped back into reality.  
She was in the sick-room's bed, and there was not judge there. With a pang of sorrow, Ruby realized that there was no Jack either.  
"Ruby, Jack is here!" Said a familiar voice. It took Ruby a moment to realize that it was Mrs. Louis who had spoken.  
"Jack...?" She asked breathlessly.  
Then a semi-unfamiliar face leaned over the bed, and she found herself faced with Mr. Dobson.  
She was severely disappointed. It wasn't Jack! Then her hallucinations caused Dobson to change. His straw-blond hair and hat turned powdered white, and his face aged before her feverish eyes. He was no longer a young navy captain, but the judge.  
"No!" she screamed, "You killed Jack!" She tried to jump out of bed, but found herself too weak, and contented herself with clutching at the vision, and screaming insults and accusations.  
  
Dobson jumped back when Ruby began screaming.  
With a confused look, he asked Mrs. Louis for an explanation, but she could find no words.  
Nicole moved to the window, and prayed that the pirate captain would hurry.  
  
It was nearly evening before Captain Sparrow found the home that Nicole had given him the address of, and he bounded up the steps, three at a time.  
When he reached the door, Jack pounded on the door, waited about half a second, then pounded again only harder.  
Soon, Mr. Louis opened the door. At the sight of the disheveled pirate, he visibly paled, and tried to shut the door.  
But Jack put his hand on the door and pushed it open.  
"I'm sorry sir, but I must find Jo!" He exclaimed as he ran past the frightened man, and quickly poked his head into several different rooms.  
"There is no one in the house named Jo!" Mr. Louis said, trying to keep his trembling voice even.  
"Ruby!" Jack corrected himself.  
"There is no Ruby!" Mr. Louis was becoming desperate.  
"What's going on?" Mrs. Louis, who had emerged from the sick-room, asked.  
When she saw Jack opening a door, looking in, then exiting the room, she screamed, this in turn sent the Navy Captain out of the room, with Nicole at his heels.  
"What is the meaning of this?!" Dobson demanded.  
"Captain Jack Sparrow!" Nicole shouted in joy.  
  
Ruby heard Nicole's shout, and pushed the blankets off her. She had to find Jack.  
Using quite a bit of her strength, she pushed herself out of the bed, and walked to the door.  
Her frame was much thinner than it had been before, and her nightgown hung on her shoulders limply.  
"Jack!" She exclaimed when she saw the pirate captain.  
She took about ten steps forwards, then the remnant of her strength left, and she fell forwards.  
She braced herself for the impact of the floor, but instead found Jack's arms around her.  
"Jack..." She repeated, and lifted a hand to touch Jack's unshaven cheek.  
"Cummon, Jo, love, you need to get back in bed." He lifted her up easily, and took her back into the sick room.  
Mrs. Louis, Mr. Louis, and Dobson watched the events open-mouthed, but Nicole scuttled after Jack and Jo, and watched from behind the door post as they entered the sick room.  
Jack carefully laid the frail, weak girl back down onto the bed.  
"Don't leave me, Jack!" Ruby pleaded as Jack tenderly placed the covers back over her.  
"I won't, love. I swear by me ship and me life." Jack carefully slid a pillow under Ruby's head.  
Jack delicately took one of Ruby's hands in his own, leaned in, and kissed her softly.  
Ruby sighed, and fell quietly fell asleep, almost before the kiss was over, confidant that things would be better when she awoke, and she knew that Jack would still be holding her hand. 


	9. Chapter 9 To Fill In the Gaps

PiratePrincess91: See! I TOLD you that I don't like killing/hurting characters, and Jack didn't die! He just...dissapeared for a while Grin Yes, this will explain more. It'll do just what the title implies.   
  
(Ok, last chapter. Sob I'm actually surprised that I managed to finish the story. 0.o; It's the second story I've ever written and actually finished. My other one is called: 'My Darling Lillian' It's a LOTR fic, but I'm gonna stop ranting now, and actually type the final chapter.)  
  
Ruby Of the Sea   
  
Chapter 9  
  
To Fill in the Gaps  
  
About two years, and a marriage ceremony, later Ruby and Jack were back aboard the Black Pearl.  
Ruby sighed as she sat down onto her and Jack's bed. Their son, Jo, had been crying for two hours, and had just fallen asleep.  
"Captain Sparrow," She called teasingly, "you never told me how you escaped from the noose the second time you were nearly hung at Port Royal."  
"Actually, love," Jack said slightly grimacing, "it was the third time I was nearly hung at that particular port."  
"Captain, captain..." Ruby laughed, stretching on the bed, "What shall I do with you?"  
After a quick shrug from the captain, and another laugh from Ruby, Jack sat down on the edge of the bed.  
Ruby sat up, and began rubbing Jack's shoulders. "Now, tell me how it is that you escaped."  
  
Captain Jack was standing with a noose around his neck, wearily listening to his charges being read to him.  
"—leading a band of pirates in attacking numerous ports, impersonating the Pope,— "  
Jack frowned. He didn't remember doing that.  
In about five more minutes, his charges were finished, and he began worrying.  
'Where is Jo? Did she not find Will?'  
"May God have mercy on your soul." The priest said blandly, obviously not meaning a word.  
"Wait! Wait!" Jack shouted, now trying to stall for time, "Might a prisoner have a last request?"  
A bit of stifled laughter rippled through the crowd.  
"What is it, Sparrow?"  
Jack did not correct him, put on a drunken smile, then said: "A bit of rum would be nice. Just a bottle?"  
"Denied." The priest said curtly, then nodded to the executioner who stood with his hand on the lever to the trap door. The executioner nodded back, and prepared to lean back, when the governor's daughter shouted: "Stop!"  
"Elizabeth!" the Captain shouted, happily. It wasn't Jo, but Jo was probably just behind her somewhere.  
"That's Mrs. Turner to you." She said, keeping her lips straightened in a thin line, but her eyes laughed.  
Jack smiled apologetically, and Elizabeth turned to speak with the priest.  
While Elizabeth spoke with the priest, Jack noticed another person coming up through the crowd. He craned his neck to see if it was Jo, but instead he saw Will coming up the path that had been cleared a moment earlier for Elizabeth.  
William climbed the stairs that led to the gallows, and walked over to Jack.  
"Where's Jo?" Sparrow asked.  
"Who?" Will replied.  
"She isn't here?"  
"Not that I know of." Will replied as he headed over to where the executioner stood.  
"Let me help you with that." Will offered, as though he were going to pull the lever, but instead pushed the man off the platform. Elizabeth followed suit, and pushed aside the parson.  
"It's an escape!" One excited little boy shouted, waving his toy sword about.  
Will cut Jack's binds, and within moments, much of the navy stationed at the port was climbing the stairs up to the gallows, and a battle ensued.  
Will tossed Jack a sword, and the pirate captain defended the stairs. Will and Elizabeth freed the remnant of the pirates.  
"We need to get to the Pearl." Gibs said, restating the obvious.  
"Well, that would be pleasant. I don't think I can keep fighting all of the Royal Navy all day." Jack said, dodging the thrust of one sword, and then returning it.  
"Does anyone have any bright ideas?" Anna-Maria asked.  
"I 'ave one!" Jack announced, "When I say 'go', jump into the water!" (The gallows were overlooking the ocean, though it was relatively high up.)  
"Ready?" The captain asked, stepping backwards so that the soldiers could come onto the gallows.  
"Go!" Jack shouted just as the guards came up the steps.  
His crew, William, and Elizabeth jumped into the ocean, while Jack stayed back for a few moments longer.  
He ran to the far end of the gallows, and as the guards ran towards him, he pulled the levers, and the doors beneath the soldiers opened.  
The soldiers fell through, and Jack noticed that one had somehow gotten his boot caught in the noose that would have held his neck.  
  
"Then I joined me crew in the water, and after a bit of commandeering, I managed to get the Pearl back. Will and Elizabeth had to move from Port Royal, because they continually rescued convicted pirates." Jack grinned.  
"Tsk, tsk! How terribly inconsiderate to the law keepers!" Ruby said in a mock-chiding tone.  
"I was on me way to visit the Turners when yer sister, Nicole found me. They happened to move to the same port that you lived at." Jack reflected as he stretched out.  
"Well, I'll thank Nicole the next time I see her." Ruby smiled.  
"The Louises didn't seem too happy to 'ave a pirate for a son-in- law." Jack mused, as Ruby fingered the beads in his hair.  
"How are the Turners?" she queried, dropping a dreadlocked strand of hair.  
"Elizabeth should be having a baby of her own soon enough." Jack replied, looking across the room to where Jo was asleep, almost all of his fist shoved into his mouth.  
Ruby dropped down next to Jack, closed her eyes, and gave a satisfied sigh.  
"I'm glad I found you in that barrel." Jack said playfully.  
Ruby opened her eyes again to find Jack's deep, brown one gazing deeply into her own.  
Jack leaned down and kissed her deeply.  
  
--------------------------------- Now that that's over, I have an announcement! I plan to write a sequel! Weak applause mingled with yawns It will be called: Opal of the Sea !  
  
Summary: It's 1619, and when Will and Elizabeth's daughter, Opal, is captured, and is being taken to America. The Turners must turn to their friend, Jack Sparrow, his wife, Ruby Sparrow, and son, Jo Sparrow, to help them rescue her. Will they be able to rescue her or will it be too late?  
  
I won't be able to write it for a while still, because I'm moving soon, and don't want to start it until I'm at wherever it is that I'm going. 


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